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Oklahoma tornado death toll currently 24, not 51, medical examiner says
Officials in Oklahoma City said on Tuesday that 24 bodies were recovered after a devastating tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma, a sharp decline from the 51 deaths they previously reported.
"We have got good news. The number right now is 24," said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer at the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office. The prior figure of 51 dead may have included some double-reported casualties, Elliott said.
"There was a lot of chaos," Elliott said.
She cautioned that additional bodies could yet be recovered from the rubble.
All but three of the bodies that have been recovered have been identified and are being returned to their families, Elliott said.
A rescuer searches the wreckage of a car after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, May 20, 2013. A 2-mile-wide tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, destroying entire tracts of homes, piling cars atop one another, and trapping two dozen school children beneath rubble. (REUTERS/Gene Blevins)
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